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Confessions of a Tourist: I fell for Hooray Henry’s old school trick

Our writer was shocked when she bumped into an old 'friend' in Patagonia. But after a few drinks she allowed him to bury the hatchet

Sam Catterick

August 21 2011, 1:01am, The Sunday Times

Parts of Patagonia may be icy but our writer's reserve still melted (Daniel Garcia)

I had hated him since college. He was arrogant, he was cocky and he’d dumped my best friend the morning after she finally agreed to sleep with him. “I’m only interested in the chase, darling,” he told her. “Now I’ve caught you, I’m going to release you.”

This was Henry. Even his name was annoying. And now here he was in Patagonia, on the same six-week school-building gap-year project as me.

I had been saving for years for my big South American trip. I’d worked at a checkout right through university. Patagonia was supposed to be the highlight. “Bloody hell, Hooters,” Henry said, putting his feet on the table next to me at the first morning’s meeting, “this is a bloody coincidence. I’m only here…

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